EskWeston

Because we have no space for him: List A: 1. Petr Cech 2. Branislav Ivanovic 3. Michael Essien 4. Ricardo Carvalho 5. Franco Di Santo 6. Didier Drogba 7. Michael Ballack 8. Florent Malouda 9. Jose Bosingwa 10. Paulo Ferreira 11. Deco 12. Salomon Kalou 13. Carlo Cudicini 14. Alex 15. Juliano Belletti 16. Nicolas Anelka 17. Henrique Hilario 18. Assocoation Trained: Frank Lampard 19. Assocoation Trained: Joe Cole 20. Assocoation Trained: Ashley Cole 21. Assocoation Trained: Wayne Bridge 22. Club Trained: John Terry 23. Club Trained: None 24. Club Trained: None 25. Club Trained: None So we lose 3 spaces because we have no Club trained players other than Terry. Of course you could argue it may have been better to include Sinclair and not one of Ferreira or Belletti............... i think Sinclair is eligable as a "club trained" player next season.

We have been extremely lucky that Mikel is eligable for list B this season. Excellant news for Miroslav Stoch and also looks like Mancienne will be staying with us this season rather than out on loan. The club really messed up somewhat with Sincair though, not planning ahead with the CL lists so that he can be included in either list A or list B!!

The squad list for the group stage of this season's Champions League has been announced. Clubs are allowed to submit an A List and a B List, both equally eligible for selection for games. Regulations mean the A List consists of the majority of the first team squad while young players who have been at Chelsea for a period of time make up List B. The squad lists are: A List Petr Cech Branislav Ivanovich Ashley Cole Michael Essien Ricardo Carvalho Frank Lampard Franco Di Santo Joe Cole Didier Drogba Michael Ballack Florent Malouda José Bosingwa Wayne Bridge Paulo Ferreira Deco Salomon Kalou Carlo Cudicini John Terry Alex Juliano Belletti Nicolas Anelka Henrique Hilario B List John Mikel Obi Rhys Taylor Sam Hutchinson Michael Mancienne Miroslav Stoch No club may have more than 25 players on List A during the season. Eight places on List A are reserved for 'locally trained players'. A 'locally trained player' is either a 'club-trained player' or an 'association-trained player' and no club may have more than four 'association-trained players' listed among the eight. This is an increase from last season's three-plus-three rule. A 'club-trained player' is a player who, between the age of 15 and 21, and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months. In the case of Chelsea, an 'association-trained player' is a player who, between the age of 15 and 21 and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with another club affiliated to the FA for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months. These regulations mean Chelsea's A List will contain 22 players for this season's group stage. A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1987 and has been eligible to play for Chelsea for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday. This means John Mikel Obi is able to move from the A to the B List this season, opening up a fresh place in the A List. Spells spent away from Chelsea on loan by Scott Sinclair make him ineligible as a club-trained player or as a B List player. Following the submission of these lists, a club may register up to three new eligible players for the remaining matches, such registration completed by 1 February. Source: Chelsea FC

Newcastle are a joke of a club if you ask me. Always thinking they are bigger than they are and are constantly screwing themselves.

We certainly shouldn't moan about another club having huge amounts of cash to spend. The Robinho deal certainly left a sour taste though, but like i said Madrid took advantage of the situation with City comming in with a load of cash. Robinho had no choice but to leave after what he did and said, and Madrid almost certainly gave him only one option - City - and he took it. Berbatov could have gone to city - he didn't he chose to go to Man you because Spuds for whatever reason backed down with United and accepted what happened. Even with all the money in the world City will find it hard to attract any mor big name players until they have CL footie, they took advantage of the Robinho situation and lucked out - fair play to them. I am more than happy to have some more challenge for the premiership. Arsenal and Liverpool are the ones who should be worried by this not us.

Well as Joe isn't particulary suited to playing as virtually a second striker i would say that he is just waiting for Drogs to be back and play the 2 up front: ...........................Cech...................... Bosingwa...Carvalho.......Terry.......A.Cole ...........................Mikel....................... ..........Essien/Ballack.....Lampard............ ...........................Deco....................... .................Drogba........Anelka.............. Of course we have the option of playing either Kalou or Di Santo as strikers also and playing a 4-3-3 with proper wingers. But Scolari seems to like playing all the midfielders he possibly can, which is understandable considering the quality. Jose did the same thing.

The question is, what would have happened had Man City not just found a couple of billion quid down the back of the sofa? Would Robinho have come to us as planned? Man City certainly gave Madrid a get-out... but there was still every chance that Madrid had no intention of selling to us, whatever their reasons are for that. Spending money isn't the only key factor. We have set ourselves up as a massive club by spending big! Now we have invested in the academy and it looks like we are determined to use that to build for the future. There is still no clear indication of young players being given the chances to force their way into the first team. Di Santo and Sinclair are right on the fringe but we will see this season. I believe we did certainly need a player still to come in, we don't know yet if this will cost us, it may do but lets hope not.

Well time will tell how serious their investment is. So far a £32m investment and the ownership deal hasn't eve gone through 100%. Of course if they build in the right way then they can of course challenge for all honours. The difference they have to when Roman took us over is the CL. They have to hit that before they can attract more big players in reality and that is no easy feat even with a load of money.

There will be less pressure on us now, especially as we have spent far less the last few windows than Man you, Liverpool and quite a few other clubs. The lack of CL football will be aproblem for them, even though they still managed to bag Robinho which is a massive move for them!!! They need top 4 this season to really have a crack at the top. The ones who are really going to be rocked by this are Arsenal, who rely heavily on their CL revenue to finance their debts and also Liverpool who are still looking unlikely to challenge us and Man you.

There is nothing from the Chelsea camp because they were well and truly embarressed by Madrid. We have no idea at the moment if we matched City's bid! It is very likely though that we did and they turned it down because they did not want to sell to us.

Judging by the system that Scolari is playing we will see Drogba and Anelka together for a lot of the time, which will work very well i am sure! When games are tight like Wigan and Spurs it is hard for Anelka to get involved, but Drogba can be like a buldozer and Anelka can feed off him. My main concern is our wingers, Kalou is a great player, as is Joe Cole but he has been short of form. Malouda still shows a complete lack of enthusiasm and if he stays that way Scolari will get shot come January as he likes his players to work for the team. With a smaller squad it does mean that we really need to start including our young players especially Sinclair and Di Santo. Fabio Paim and Miroslav Stoch would also be worth a go on the wings when the chance comes along.

If it is a company then it is less likely that they will input huge sums of money and not worrying about it like what Roman does. Sort of like QPR, they are loaded, with more money than Roman but are not spending like crazy.

Not worried about how much money we have spent. Not at all. But i am worried that our squad is a little light. It means that Di Santo and Sinclair will get plenty of games, which is a good thing.

Well something got seriously screwed up somewhere. Man City had an offer accepted? Did we match the bid? if we did, then did Madrid not accept it from us but did from Man City?? Clearly Madrid were not happy with us and wanted to stick 2 fingers up at both us an Robinho, Madrid would have said to Robinho, fine you want to leave so much then your option is Man City only - and suprisingly he took it! I am not happy that firstly we lost out on Robinho, secondly that we lost out to Man City, and thirdly we are very light on players upfront.

Fortunately Balague doesn't know EVERYTHING about Spanish football despite what he wants people to think..... There are still some major shocks to happen in this transfer window before midnight and i hope Robinho to us will be one of them

Lol, Man City are going to bid on every big name players they can think of and hope that one will go through!!! Seems like these guys are serious though. Next summer could be very interesting for City, although they still need CL footie to attract the REAL big names...

Well that is excellant news for us as it means that Madrid are resigned to letting Robinho go as they stated that there would be no-one out and no-one in for them....

7 hours now...

Have not seen any report that Spurs have agreed a fee for him from Manure? It would obviosuly be in our best interest if Madrid signed him..

I would be stunned if we did sign anyone other than Robinho. It has seemed like our stance has been Robinho or no-one...

We definately only need 1 player. But we DO need that 1 player: Cech, Cudicini, Hilario Bosingwa, Belletti, Terry, Carvalho, Alex, Ivanovic, Cole, Bridge (Ferreira???) Mikel, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Deco Cole, Malouda, Kalou (Sinclair) Drogba, Anelka, Di Santo 23 players not including Sinclair and including the keepers. We definately need another forward option.

2 birds with 1 stone, Madrid were interested in him last season as well. But i would doubt it as it would leave us light still on players.

Our squad is still very good, although extremely light. The only player i am not particulary happy with is Malouda - other than that our squad is very good. But lacking in options now in forward positions...

Exactly, Drogba has become more injury prone, same with Ballack. I still find it very hard to believe that Wright-Phillips would have gone without us having a replacement lined up - unless someone has seriously f**ked up somewhere....

Not at all likely this season, too late for them to make a real impact in the transfer window and there are never any big January deals.. But if the new owners are prepared to inject some serious cash as it looks like they do then they could be a big threat.